A Japan Airlines 787, from which fuel spilled at Boston's Logan International Airport last Tuesday, sits on the tarmac at Narita Airport in Narita east of Tokyo on Jan. 13, 2013. / AP

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the agency is engaged in serious discussions with Boeing about how to remedy problems with the 787 Dreamliner's lithium-ion batteries.

He refused to set a timetable for getting the planes back in the air, after a Jan. 16 order grounding the fleet, because of the need to identify a cause for battery fires in two planes and the need for Boeing to develop a remedy that protects against future problems.

"We're very focused on working as quickly as we can to get these planes back in the air," Huerta told an American Bar Association conference. "But we're not going make that determination until we're convinced that it's safe."

Huerta's comments come after The Wall Street Journalwrote in a Tuesday evening report that the FAA could give Boeing "the green light for airborne tests of proposed lithium-ion battery fixes for its 787 Dreamliner as early as next week."

However, the newspaper cited no named sources, saying it got its information from "people familiar with the details." Additionally, the Journal report said that even if the FAA does move next week, "actual test flights aren't likely to come that quickly."

FAA and other regulators around the world grounded the 787 on Jan. 16 after an All Nippon Airways 787 made an emergency landing in Japan because of a smoldering battery. Another Dreamliner, owned by Japan Airlines, suffered a battery fire on the ground.

Boeing won permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct test flights Feb. 11 under special conditions, including that the planes fly over unpopulated areas.